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Epic Games closes Impossible Studios, delays Infinity Blade: Dungeons

Epic Games has closed Impossible Studios, the studio founded by former members of 38 Studios subsidiary Big Huge Games. The studio was founded when 38 Studios shuttered both of its development houses in May of 2012. Impossible Studios was put to work on Infinity Blade: Dungeons, an expanded iOS dungeon crawler based in the Infinity Blade universe.

"We're closing Impossible Studios," said Epic Games founder Tim Sweeney in a message today. "When former members of Big Huge Games approached Epic last year, we saw the opportunity to help a great group of people while putting them to work on a project that needed a team. It was a bold initiative and the Impossible folks made a gallant effort, but ultimately it wasn't working out for Epic."

"In addition to providing Impossible Studios employees with 3 months of severance pay, we'll be giving the team the opportunity to form a new company with the Impossible Studios name and the awesome Impossibear logo," Sweeney added. "This means that Infinity Blade: Dungeons is now on hold as we figure out the future of the project."

Despite being shown in demo at the press event for the third-generation iPad in March of 2012, Infinity Blade: Dungeons was a no-show for the rest of the year.

5 Comments

Mobile games don't work to a AAA deadline or storage space. You can't show a project in the mobile space and then ask folks to wait a year to actually get it. You also can't cram a full on stand alone game into a mobile phone, which is also running your calls, diary, widgets and anything else you happen to download. This is going to be one of the major trip ups for large studios as they try to transition to this space.

From seeing the demo it was clear to me that they didn't get the limitations of the platforms they were working on. I could almost see the gigabyte counter rising as I read each feature from the list.

They SHOULD have multi-platformed the game with added control options, as I can see PS Move, Vita and Kinect owners wanting to try an Infinity Blade game that was an actual game and not a finger exerciser. Mobile's weaknesses will be a major reason it won't take off among CORE gamers. Sometimes, simplicity can be a curse wrapped up in a blessing...

Peter although you are right in everything you say about the limitations of the platform, I would think that Epic knows quite well what works and what not on mobile. That is why they froze the project and closed the studio. After all, Chair made one of the most succesful games on iOS and there are several UDK games out there! (i.e. Lili) Unfortunately, i am drawn to the conclusion that it had nothing to do with the management having unrealistic expectations, but the team not being able to adapt to a new technical specification and deliver. Games like that can work. Not immediately at launch perhaps but they can. See Dungeon Hunter 3 for instance.

Indeed this is what many of the old school developers don't understand. After many years in console and PC production, I actively seeked employment and worked for one year to a pure mobile development agency to understand how the market and technology works what the users expect from a UX standpoint. But i wouldn't blame Epic for that.